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No. 11. The Secretary, General Post Office, Wellington, to the Acting-Secretary, Postmaster-General's Department, Melbourne. Sir,— General Post Office, Wellington. Bth October, 1909. I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 28th ultimo, asking that mails for Australia received at Auckland by vessels of the Weir line be transferred to steamers of tinUnion Steam Ship Company or the Huddart, Parker, and Company Proprietary when such transfer will expedite their delivery. In reply, I beg to refer you to your letter of the 21st November, 1907 [No. 30, F.-6, 1908]. in which you disclaimed responsibility for the transhipment at Auckland of American mails for Australia. I communicated, as you suggested, with the Washington Post Office, applying for payment of the gratuity for the New Zealand - Australia transit in cases in which the mails had been transhipped, and inquiring whether similar transhipments should be made if it was certain that time would be gained thereby. The Washington Post Office paid the gratuity, but requested that the mails should be transhipped only when their delivery in Australia would be materially expedited. When the mails received by the " Foieric " and " Yeddo " on the 30th September and 28th October. 1907. respectively, were transhipped, this office was asked by Washington for the assurance that the gain in time had been material. As regards the mails despatched from Auckland to Melbourne by the s.s. " Tymeric on the Ist ultimo, the Department having been informed that the vessel was expected to reach .Mcl bourne on the Bth or 9th idem, it was considered that there was not likely to be a gain in time much in excess of a day m the case of the mails for Sydney, or any gain in the case of the mails for Melbourne, in the event of their being shipped from Wellington to Sydney in the " Ulimaroa " on the 3rd. It was therefore decided, as the delivery of the mails would not be. as particularly required by Washington, materially expedited, to allow them to remain on board the " Tymeric." I have, &c. D. Robertson. Secretary. The Acting-Secretary, Postmaster-General's Department, Melbourne.

WELLINGTON RAROTONGA - TAHITI ROUTE. No, 12. The Hon. the Postmaster-General* Wellington, to the Secretary, General Post Oftflce, London. Sir,— General Posi Office, Wellington, lOth June, l'.ioit. In continuation of my letter of the 28tli ultimo [not printed], in reference to the exchange of mails between your office and Rarotonga, 1 have the honour to inform you that the Postmaster ai Rarotonga is despatching a mail to London regularly by the contract steamers leaving Wellington for Tahiti. I have, &c, \Y. I!. Morris, for the Postmaster-General. The Secretary. General Post Office, London. [P.O. 09/311.] '

No. 13. The Second Assistant Postmaster-General, Washington, to the Hon. the Postmaster-General, .Wellington. Post Office Department. Second Assistant Postmaster-General, Sir,— Washington, 13th August, 1909. By direction of the Postmaster-General, I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 17th June hist [No. 62, K. 6, 1909] relative to compensation for the intermediary transit from Tahiti to New Zealand of the British closed mails for New Zealand despatched rin New York, San Francisco, and Papeete. In reply, 1 am to inform you that for the conveyance in question, as well Foreign dosed mails as mails of United States origin, this department settles direct with conveying steamship company at the rate of 4 francs a kilogram of letters and post-cards, and 60 centimes a kilogram of other articles, calculated on the actual weights of the mails conveyed. I have, &<■.. Joseph Stewart, The Hon. the Postmaster-'Gieneral, Wellington. Second Assistant Postmaster-General. [P.O. 09/4193.J